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» 2002 Tour - Buffalo, NY «
Aug 1, 2002 - Buffalo, NY @ The Tralf
Thanks everyone for your reviews of this first show on the "offical" tour and as always, if you sent in a review and I didn't post it, thank you just the same, it's space/time constraints that make it hard to post everything, but I love reading it all. Big thanks to Daryl Brothers for sending in this awesome picture from the show.
Set List (thanks to William)
There is something special when you know that you are in the presence of greatness, and when it's a "good night". The August 1 show at the Tralf in Buffalo was one of those experiences. The mood of the crowd was upbeat and excited. Paul was in great voice and played a broad mix of his music, he was full of energy. As will excite many of you, he did three songs from "14 Songs", an album he's been playing none of so far this year. The set was arranged like it was on Conan, there were couches and chairs, and he had a little table for his picks, drinks, and stogies. A lyric book sat on an amp to his left. I cannot tell you in words that will express how good this show was. It was a man and his guitars, he was there naked in front of us, warts and all, and it was beautiful. He is one of the best performers of our lifetimes. There were many highlights, and some are personal. Thanks to both good fortune and several kind people (thank you Daryl, Kelly and Sarah), I sat directly in front of Paul. He started with "High Time". Early on he mentioned he had "played this place before", I called out that it was 1993 and he repeated it. He totally blew "Skyway". He got near the end, stopped, and then pointed out that his guitar was tuned too low. He moved the capo up a fret and started over. He promised us that he would do it perfectly or we would get our money back. He lied, there was no refund. He messed up at the third line or so, I tried to prompt him with the right line. He heard me but somehow it got worse. Still he soldiered on and did the song with the audience's help. He did Mr. Rabbit but got messed up on the guitar part. After making faces and acting sheepish, he finished the song very slowly. Paul pulled out store-bought sheet music for "I'll Be You" and said something about needing it to get through the song. Then he said that the chords and lyrics were wrong in the sheet music. Then he performed the song with the "wrong" music, having a few problems fingering the chords as they were written. Anyone who's ever played guitar has experienced this, and his facial expressions were hysterical! Paul showed the best sides of his personality and humor all night. He sat down to do "Even Here We Are", perfectly and beautifully. I was in bliss. Later on he said, "Guess who I stole this from", and he started playing "Don't Cry No Tears Around Me" a 1976 Neil Young song. He did two verses, a good performance, then stopped. Then he said, "now just speed it up". He played the same song, just faster and harsher, and it was "Knockin' On Mine"! Another personal highlight; people were yelling out way too many things, he obviously didn't care. When he leaned over his lyric sheets he was about 3 feet away from me, so when this was going on I leaned over and asked him, "Can you understand them?" Paul answered, "No, and I'm not listening either." Despite this, the third "14 Songs" song came about from the requests. A woman behind me kept yelling for "Things" but Paul couldn't understand her. A guy by the stage had a bunch of lyric sheets, he had read about the in-store show where a guy came with lyrics, and he had "Things" so he threw it at Paul. Paul grabbed it and said "Oh" then placed it down and did the song perfectly, note for note and word for word, without the lyrics. The tamborine was on the couch but he never touched it. His second song of the encore was "If Only You Were Lonely". It was really good, but for some unknown reason at the end Paul yelled something (no one I asked understood it) then smashed the guitar against the amp that was right in front of me, the one with the lyric sheets all over it. I was ready to catch anything that flew our way, but nothing did. The lyrics went flying. The guitar didn't break, it just bounced back and hit Paul in the head and he left the stage. The house music came up and the roadies started clearing the stage. The crowd, however, kept clapping until Paul came out and did "Swinging Party" to more properly end the show. After the show the roadies cleaned up quickly, and I was looking for a souvenier. With the approval of the chief roadie, I took Paul's half finished can of Coke. We passed it around and finished it, and now it's my souvenier. There are T-Shirts, posters and buttons for sale. About a half hour later Paul came out and spent a bit of time with the people that had waited by the tour bus. He signed my Stereo and Mono CD cases, and I got a picture with him. He was visably tired but made an effort to spend at least a moment with each person. Other songs he played that I can remember: I Will Dare, Alex Chilton, Got Your Number, Achin to Be, Bad Times Roll, Eyes Like Sparks, 2 Days Till Tomorrow, Best Thing that Never Happened, Psychopharmacology, Love Untold, Waitress in the Sky. A great night, a great night.
John in Buffalo I was at Buffalo and it was truly amazing. I don't have the whole set list but wow what a show. Paul was great. Once again he flubbed the first verse of Skyway, couldn't remember "stupid hat and gloves." A great mix of old and new. What stood out most is what has always stood out most, Paul's irreverence to his own pain, career and art, which of course is his art. During Lush and Green, I damn near wanted to cry, especially when he added a verse that simply said what the song was all about. But soon enough, he was just being Paul again, uniquely human. All artists stand up at a microphone, open their mouth and 4/4 time sing "i'm vulnerable look at me." Paul does something different and damn it, tonight for 2 hours I knew exactly what it was. He was a majestic fool. He was a rebel without a clue. A poet who didn't want to bother ryhming, who only wanted to say "this is how it is." I've got to travel to see more shows. It was too good not too see again. Thanks Paul. Chuck
Paul came out a little after nine o'clock to rousing applause. With his blond 72 Telecaster he did a rocking version of "High Time". When finished he said to the crowd "it really is." Next was Mr. Rabbit, like High Time the crowd was familiar with this one and quite pleased he was playing it. After hitting more then a few clangers he stopped and said "I play as bad as Keith Richard's....................... drunk". Then he finished the song. I can't remember all the songs but I'm sure someone did and will report them. But some of the highlights were as follows. 2 days till tomorrow, eyes like sparks, Let T he Bad times roll( before he played this he said "this is one of the best songs I ever wrote." Looking Out Forever Now and The Best Thing That Never Happened gave me chills. I'll Be You and Ackin To Be both were big crowd pleasers. I will Dare, Psycopharmacolagy, Swinging Party and Waitress In The Sky.The one song I was very happy to hear him do was "Things". I'm not sure if he was going to do this or not but some girl was screaming it and he did. Maybe just to shut her up but a really great version that the crowd sang along to. While doing "Skyway" he stopped almost half way through adjusted the capo and started over. He said something along the lines of " you're going to get your money's worth if it kills me" then said "if I don't do it flawlessly you all get your money back." He then went on to butcher the second try at it. Alex Chilton was great to hear another one the crowd liked to sing along with. He did Hank William's "Highwayman" and a Jimmy Reed blues number. He did a number of songs off of his first two solo albums all were great and well received by the crowd. I know I have forgotten some of the really great ones. A few things he said as best i could make out are as follows. "Anyone know how I can make alot of money?", after forgetting the lyrics to one song "what would Billy Joel do?" . At one point he said something about Memphis and pretending to be confused looked to his right and said "Tommy? Tommy?" this got big laughs. Besides his 72 Tele he played a new blue strat( he slammed it against his marshall amp at the end of the set and it bounced back up and hit him) he also played his hollow body red Gibson and another electric that I didn't recognize. For acoustics he played a twelve string also a really nice black six string Gibson and a Martin six string. He was in fine voice and looked confident and seemed to be enjoying himself. I was pleased to see the crowd was familiar with ALL his material and seemed just as happy to hear the solo stuff as they were to hear the Replacements stuff. To me it just all blends together I no longer see them as Mats songs or solo songs. They have all become Paul songs. He has amassed such a catalog of songs he could play an entirely different set tonight and it would be just as good.
As for the solo performance thing I have to give him credit. It takes
guts to do it this way. Every mistake is obvious and there were plenty
of them. It was raw and interesting to see him perform this way and
something a fan shouldn't miss. But I hope it is a one time thing and
that next time around he goes back to a band format. I don't mean that
to be negative or scare anyone off it's just that I enjoy a band. Just
an old rocker I guess. Speaking of old the crowd was lets just say
mature.
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